Hi everyone, just found this amazing website and would like to ask for expert opinions here.
I live in SoCal and would love to lease a subcompact luxury SUV in a few months. What are you suggestions? I googled it and found that BMW X1 is ranked No.1 in this category on USNews, but I heard that even leather upholstery is an option for this car. So I really have no idea. I need a SUV to put two children in the 2nd row, but I currently have a QX60 so don’t need a big SUV per se.
Any idea is appreciated and thanks in advance.
And of course I want to thank this truly amazing website/forum for showing the door for me. Not buying a car again lol. So excited!!
The topic is “Best Lease for Compact Luxury SUV”, though Mazda is obviously not a luxury brand. But it’s pretty loaded from what I see and has good reviews.
This segment of the market, as you may have started to surmise, is quite murky and eager to bait buyers who discern nothing more than a badge…there are quite a few “luxury” models that don’t deserve that moniker.
IMO I think you need to drive/sit in a few of them to see whether they actually deliver the experience that you are looking for.
So, the choices are: tier 1 - Macan, Discovery, X1, GLA, Q3; tier 2 - RDX, QX30, NX200. Plenty to choose from, but some will lease better than others, of course.
Unless you need a compact car for space reasons (small garage, live in Europe), I’d avoid them…mileage isn’t better, and with kids they get really cramped.
I want it to be ‘compact’ for two reasons. First, it’s obviously going to be cheaper. Second, the car is specifically for daily transportation of two kids so the second row doesn’t need to be spacious. On weekends I have the QX60.
Yeah I need to find time to test drive some cars. But realistically is $280 per month doable for any of the models that Ursus mentioned above? If so, which ones? I guess $320 is certainly easier to achieve, but hey we’re leasehackrs.
Thanks Michael, I hope that I could make a $300 (or even less) deal happen now that the holiday season is coming.
So yesterday I checked out these vehicles at the dealers (didn’t have time to test drive though).
Macan: looks good, about the size I want, but it should not be included in this group because it’s usually priced at $55K+.
Q3: looks like a very outdated car and later I found out that Audi had a similar car released in Europe (where subcompact SUVs are very popular) back in 2012.
Discovery and Evoque: Evoque is bit more expensive although it’s smaller. Both have the very impressive LV/RV signature one-piece panoramic sunroof. Kinda pricey and they don’t allow MSDs to bring down the MF.
F-Pace: both exterior and interior look great, a lot of dealers are out of the base or premium models though.
GLA: a huge disappointment, more like a wagon than a SUV, and noticeably shorter than others. It doesn’t feel like a Benz at all. This product is a failure IMO.
Still have X1 and NX 200t to check out. Will report back.
Yep. BMW and MB ARE luxury brands who built only luxury cars. For me - Lexus, Infiniti and Acura are all pretenders, who make very good “luxury” cars based on the existing cars for masses. Would you call Hyundai Genesis a luxury car just because Hyundai re-branded it to Genesis G80? These brands, and Hyundai in particular, offer more bang for the money because they are trying to compete with “German engineering” in the luxury segment.
I personally would not buy a car that needs to meet my specific needs just for it’s badge, but OP wants a luxury SUV…
Yep. But they are luxury brand cars that don’t even have leather standard
I would definitely put Volvo in Tier 1, but most folks would probably disagree BTW, XC60 is not a small SUV on par with X1 and GLA. I heard Volvo will make XC40.
